8/14/2016 PowerTeacherPro will be the new gradebook for all Grades 4 through 12. This guide will walk you through the basics of Final Grade SetUp and creating assignments. Below is a Quick view of your start page to gain a general idea of where to select classes, create assignments, enter scores, select students, etc. You may or may not see this at start up. Click the? in the top right to see the Getting Started screen or the Tips and Tricks. A Special Note About Categories and Final Grade SetUps PowerSchool 10 allows us to manage categories and final grade set ups at the district level. I have set up and locked the Y1 Term calculation for all schools since this must be the same for all schools. At the High School level I set up but did not lock all other terms to allow for individual department and/or teacher preferences. Please remember to establish your Final Grade Setup is correct for Semesters before entering grades. In an effort to streamline our Category Bank I have studied past categories used by all schools and have worked to create a Category Bank at the district level for teachers to use. Please try to use categories within this bank as much as possible. If you feel we are missing a commonly used category, please let me know so that I can add the category to the District Category Bank. pg. 1
Using PowerTeacher Pro with Traditional Grading Accessing the Gradebook Navigate to the HTML-based gradebook directly through the teacher portal. There s no need to launch a separate application (JAVA) to access the gradebook. To navigate to the gradebook: 1. Go to the PowerSchool portal or Enter the URL below https://powerschool.msad54.org/teachers/pw.html 2. Enter your username and password (Contact dsmall@msad54.org for assistance with login issue. 3. Click Sign In 4. You will see the PowerTeacher Start Page (below) that allows you to take attendance, view student information, etc. On the Start Page, 1. Click PowerTeacher Pro to launch your gradebook 2. Read the welcome message and click Close (To view the message again, click the Help icon and select Getting Started.). pg. 2
Setting Up Grading Preferences To define a traditional grade calculation for a class: 1. Click Settings 2. Select Traditional Grade Calculations (If you plan to be all Standards you would click Standards Grade Calculations) pg. 3 3. To see the grade calculations for all of the classes, click Expand All 4. Starting with the first listed class you need to enter grades for, click the Actions icon next to the first reporting term. Y1, S1, and S2 Must be set up even if you are using Total Points. Y1 for all schools has been calculated and locked. You will need to set up S1 and S2 according how you grade and if you plan to calculate the semester to include a midterm or final grade. S1 and S2 Set up (Some set ups vary with teacher preferences) 5. Verify that Calculate Overall Class Grade is checked by clicking on actions for Y1 or S1 6. Open the Type menu and choose Term Weighting 7. Open the Attribute menu and select the term Q1 8. To define the weight of the selected term, enter a value in the Weight field, such as 45, 40, etc. 9. To add Q2, click the +sign 10. Open the Type menu and choose Term Weighting 11. Open the Attribute menu and select Q2 12. Set the Weight field for Q2 13. If you do not plan to have a midterm delete the E1 and set Q1 and Q2 at 50/50. 14. Repeat steps 6 through 13 for Semester 2. 15. If you plan to use Total Points for your Quarter Setups you are finished with the set up for this course and can now move to your next course. (NOTE: At this time, you cannot Copy the Final Grade SetUP and must set up each class.) If you plan to weight Categories, please keep going to the next section on Category Weighting)
Setting up Category Weighting To define the weight of the selected category, you will first want to add the categories you wish to use. Categories can be created at Teacher, School and/or District Level. We have generated a listing of District Categories and are asking you to use this list as much as possible. If you wish to use a category that is not on the list, please contact Dorothy Small to enter the category at a district level for all to use if they wish. 16. Go to the Term (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) you wish to work with. 17. Click on the Actions button for that term. 18. Click the + to add a parameter 19. Under Type choose Category Weighting 20. Under Attribute choose the Category 21. Continue adding categories until you have added all you plan to use. (If you are missing a category please contact Dorothy Small to discuss adding a category or using an existing category in a different way.) 22. Enter a value in the Weight field, such as 3(for 30%) a. Use weight values that will make the values in the Percent columns add up to 100%. 23. To save the grade calculation, click Save (bottom right) 24. Repeat steps 16-21 to calculate all Terms requiring Category Weighting. (Note; if you use Total Points you can still use categories without the weights defined.) pg. 4
Creating and Viewing Assignments View assignments on both the Assignments and Scoresheet pages. Set up assignments at the beginning of a school term or at any time during the term. To save time, copy existing assignments or create duplicates while creating a new assignment. 1. Click Create 2. Select Assignment 3. Open the Select Classes menu and select a class Click outside the Select Classes menu to close it. 4. Enter the name of the assignment, such as Cool Quiz 5. Select Quiz as the category 6. Select a score type, such as Points 7. Enter the Max number of points for the assignment, such as 80 8. To include the assignment in students final grades, verify that Count in Final Grade is selected 9. Enter the assignment due date The default due date is today s date. 10. Enter a description, such as This quiz covers all of the topics discussed in the Cool unit. 11.Click the Students tab 12. Verify that the assignment applies to all students. To apply the assignment to a selection of students, click Add/Remove Students. Then clear the check box next to the Filter area and check the boxes next to the selected students names. pg. 5
13.Click the Standards tab 14. Click the Show Selected Standards tab 15. Check the Auto-Calculate Assignment Standards Scores 16. Click Save 17. Click the Add/Edit Standards tab 18. Select the standards that are aligned to the assignment Please Note: All SAHS courses should have the three HOW standards available to attach and use. If you do not see the HOW standards please let Dorothy Small know so the your course can be connected to the HOW. 19.Click the Publish tab 20. Open the Publish Assignment menu and choose when to publish the assignment for students and parents 21. To publish students scores once you ve scored the assignment, check Publish Scores 22.Click Save at the bottom of the Create window Note: At this point, you could copy the assignment by clicking Duplicate at the bottom of the Create window or close the window by clicking X in the upper-right corner. pg. 6
Duplicating an Assignment 1. Click Grading 2. Select Assignment List 3. In the list of assignments, locate an assignment that you ve already created and click the Edit icon 4. Click Duplicate at the bottom of the Edit window pg. 7
5. Open the Select Classes menu, clear the check box next to the currently selected class, and choose a different class Click outside the Select Classes menu to close it. 6. Finish creating the assignment for the new class or classes using steps 4 through 22 above. 7.To verify that you copied the assignment to a different class, click the name of the currently selected class in the navigation bar at the top of the page and select the class that you copied the assignment to 8.Locate the duplicated assignment in the list of assignments This guide is meant to be just the basics needed to get started. For a more detailed guide please see the MSAD54 PowerSchool, PowerTeacherPro support page. http://www.msad54.org/powerschool/54guidesandresources.html pg. 8